Planning your Perfect Packaging

Planning your Perfect Packaging

When planning your packaging there are many aspects that need to be considered.
Over the last year, we have been listening to our customers - what you get stuck on or
find tricky or where you are unsure of how to approach things.
We want to answer and help plan a packaging strategy for you to produce your ideal
brand identity.

Research

When you have created a product you're proud of, the packaging has to be perfect.
It needs to compliment your product and make your company stand out from your competitors.
When doing your market research for your packaging, here are some things to consider:

Target audience: In a lot of cases, a customer has their heart set on a colour scheme or packaging type. However, it is not necessarily popular with the
market or the age group/gender. It's important to get inside
the head of your target market and identify what colours/styles they respond to.

Ensure the packaging reflects your item: If you are selling a £500 item, be sure to choose a luxury box which
has the appropriate branding/feel to it. Read the information on your packaging to ensure
the right material, thickness and shape are being picked. A standard gift box costing 30p is probably not going
to reflect your expensive product well and vice versa.
For an organic feel for a product that costs £2.00, it's probably worth getting a more
standardised box and using a label to brand to keep costs down.

Colour schemes: Give your company its identity with branding and the colours of your packaging.
Choose colours relevant to your audience. You may find choosing one particular colour for men but a different colour for
women work better than one colour for all. If your branding has various colours, use extras such as tissue paper,
ribbon and print colour or labels to really make your packaging stand out.

Be open to suggestions!: If you're unsure or still researching, get opinions on your colour scheme or styles; ask
peers, potential customers or even packaging experts to advise.

Prepare

Preparation is key. Most companies tend to work six months ahead to allow for anything that may go wrong.
Leaving things until the last minute can be very stressful, both for your business
and for packaging partners you're working with.

Logo Design: Do go to a professional to design and create your logo for you. They can provide you
with the files you will need, not just for packaging but all types of branding. Make sure you always retrieve the
original vector file the logo was created in. This is not a jpeg image but a high-resolution file with all the fonts,
lines and images drawn into it, so any designer can access it.
Many branding companies will need this to efficiently brand products for you.

Measuring: This sounds simple - however, packaging can be displayed differently.
Some internal, some external measurements. Our boxes are always measured using internal dimensions.
Be sure to measure your product accurately before choosing a box.
If you are packaging a mix of items, lay them out on the floor the way you would like to see them packaged
and measure around them to find the most suitable box. Without measurements, there is very little a
packaging company can do for you and it may not be accurate and will waste time and money.

Consider where you will be selling the product: If you are selling your products online, a thin large letter friendly
box may work for your product and save you money in shipping costs in the long run. If you are mailing your
product or travelling around the country with a product, you will need to consider a gift box and outer mailer.

Sampling: We suggest in all cases you get a plain sample. Check the box is up to the standard you are expecting,
it suits the style for your brand, and most importantly, your products fit inside it.

Approaching the packaging company

When approaching us, it's really helpful to have the previous steps in place beforehand.
We are always more than happy to advise and we have a great design team on hand to produce your logo, should you need us to.
We can also advise on popular colours and styles. However, once you've decided what you want, it's great to be prepared so we can gift you the best service.

Here's what we'll need to know:

- Product code of the product you have chosen
- Quantity (for branding, our MOQ starts at 50 units for boxes, 100 for bags)
- That you have a logo in vector file (or that you'd like us to make you one)
- Specify the colour and positioning of the print
- Provide the billing and shipping address and contact details
- If you have any other questions, we are happy to answer or advise

Drop us an email: While we work on your branding solution, we need everything in writing, so drop us an email
with all these details and your vector logo attached.

Some other tips to help you prepare:

Learn about our services: Most of our services, rough prices and processes are displayed on our website.To make the process faster and for your own peace of mind, it's easy to familiarise yourself with the way we work and what we do,
so all the charges and processes make sense to you.

Read thoroughly: We have a process to proceed with branded items.
We will always provide you with the next step or let you know what we need to proceed.
Please read as carefully as possible to ensure
things proceed as efficiently as you would like and do make sure you check your order throroughly.

Budgeting

When budgeting for packaging, there are a few things to take into account:VAT: Make sure you take into account prices that are exc. VAT. You may find you've budgeted well and then
and extra 20% is added on.

Shipping: All orders have shipping added onto them when ordering from us. Remember to take into account the cost to
ship your product out to your customers too.

Bulk buys: Bulk buying will, in the long run, reduce your costs.
We do bulk discounts for quantities over 100, 300 and 1,000 units.

Extras: Remember to add on the costs for extras you may have considered earlier in the journey.
Ribbon, tissue paper, branding, labels, packing paper, outer boxes and more.
This all can be discussed early on so it is added into your budget.

We hope that you find this information useful. Whether you're a seasoned package buyer or new to the process,
we like to offer information to help out. If there's anything we've missed, please get in touch. We love to
hear from people, whether existing customers or not.